David,
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For purposes of traceability analysis and impact analysis it would be
useful to return the results ordered in a transitive sequence, rather
than alphanumerically, if owl:TransitiveProperty is specified in the
ontology.
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In Virtuoso, we've found that many tasks requires additional return
variables, such as ID of the path and a position of the node in the
path. Thus sorting by path ID then by position gives the desired
traceability.
However, this behavior should be optional because this order does not
work fine for breadth first strategies.
IMHO the choice between orders depends solely on the query asked, not on
presence of any hints in the ontology or data.
Best Regards,
Ivan Mikhailov
OpenLink Software
http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com